MGM Resorts International Strengthens Global Commitment to Anti-Human Trafficking Efforts
The company is now a member of ECPAT-USA's Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism
After years of independent anti-human trafficking activity MGM Resorts has signed ECPAT-USA's Tourism Child-Protection Code of Conduct (The Code), a worldwide network of organizations working to end the sexual exploitation of children. ECPAT-USA is the leading policy organization in the United States seeking to end the commercial, sexual exploitation of children through awareness, advocacy, policy, and legislation. ECPAT-USA is a member of the ECPAT International network, with offices in 95 countries.
MGM Resorts has already implemented several measures against human trafficking, including establishing relevant policies, procedures and practices, as well as educating and training employees. Joining ECPAT-USA gives renewed focus to these commitments and provides the Company with an additional platform to reinforce its internal efforts with enhanced collaboration and engagement with external partners and resources.
Prominent among MGM's standing anti-human trafficking commitment is its active participation in the Southern Nevada Human Trafficking Task Force – an external partnership that convenes government officials, law enforcement, business representatives and community members to address human trafficking. MGM hosted and sponsored two Task Force conferences in 2013 and 2014 and will repeat this sponsorship again. Furthermore, MGM actively engages in a nightlife compliance industry group, Z.O.N.E., which promotes best practices to fight the use of the nightclub industry as a venue for human trafficking.
"As a leader in the entertainment and hospitality industry, MGM Resorts has for many years taken a strong stand – as a matter of policy and business practices ‒ against human trafficking as a plague on human society that should not be tolerated in any community," said Phyllis A. James, MGM's Chief Diversity & Corporate Responsibility Officer. "Our Company has undertaken concrete steps to raise employee awareness, assure that our properties are not used to imperil children or other trafficking victims and support nonprofit organizations involved in combatting this social evil and/or providing victim services."
For example, in 2018 MGM Resorts granted $250,000 to fund three major anti-human trafficking programs led by the McCain Institute for International Leadership at Arizona State University – the launch of a certificate program to train professionals to serve runaway and homeless youth; an education program to equip educators with prevention strategies; and commencement of a new collaboration among business leaders, subject matter experts and government representatives to drive private industry to address forced labor in its supply chain. Moreover, in 2018 The MGM Resorts Foundation donated $30,000 in proceeds from its 2017 Women's Leadership Conference to three local Las Vegas nonprofits dedicated to treatment and rehabilitation services for human trafficking victims – the Rape Crisis Center ($10,000), The Embracing Project ($10,000) and The SEEDS of Hope program sponsored by the Salvation Army ($10,000).
“MGM Resorts International’s anti-trafficking efforts have already proven the company to be a leader in the industry on this issue,” said Michelle Guelbart, Director of Private Sector Engagement at ECPAT-USA. “We look forward to working with MGM Resorts through this new partnership to strengthen and expand the already active role they have taken to protect children around the world.”
Membership in The Code will add MGM's voice to the global community of opponents of child sexual exploitation, and will enhance the Company's access to current research and knowledge, advocacy and best practices aimed at the fundamental goal of ending the commercial sexual exploitation of children and all other human trafficking victims.